Baidu has officially kicked off its 2026 scholarship program and the 2026 CCF-Baidu Pinecone Fund, marking another step in its ongoing commitment to cultivating artificial intelligence talent. These two initiatives cater to current students and early-career university researchers, spanning talent discovery, scientific research support, industry hands-on experience, and career development pathways, while further strengthening Baidu's long-term framework for AI talent cultivation and engagement.

Established in 2013, the Baidu Scholarship has now run for 12 consecutive sessions, providing over 10 million yuan in cumulative financial support to 116 outstanding students worldwide. Recognized as one of the most generous and prestigious academic awards in the AI field both domestically and internationally, the 2026 edition is open to Chinese students enrolled at universities globally, including undergraduates, master's, and doctoral candidates, provided their graduation date falls on or after January 2027. Ten recipients will be selected, each receiving a 200,000 yuan research grant. Beyond monetary support, winners will have the opportunity to engage in in-depth discussions with Baidu's core technical experts on their research topics and development directions. They will also gain access to internships and campus recruitment opportunities within Baidu's key AI technical teams, as well as priority referrals to the AIDU top-talent program.

In 2020, Baidu partnered with the China Computer Federation (CCF) to launch the CCF-Baidu Pinecone Fund, which continuously empowers young academics to pursue frontier exploration and technology commercialization across the full large-model pipeline. For 2026, the Pinecone Fund will zero in on critical technological pathways for large models, prioritizing seven frontier areas: foundational theory, distributed training, inference deployment, reinforcement learning training systems, model architecture and pre-training, post-training with Agent development, and data infrastructure. Between October 2026 and October 2027, the fund will support 8 to 13 high-value projects, with individual grants ranging from 150,000 to 250,000 yuan, fully facilitating the deep integration of academic innovation with industrial application.

The Baidu Scholarship and Pinecone Fund serve as a microcosm of Baidu's sustained investment in AI research and talent development. Public reports indicate that as one of the earliest domestic companies to commit to AI research, Baidu has poured a cumulative 180 billion yuan into the AI sector, with dedicated talent training programs forming a critical component of this expenditure. Industry analysts suggest that the continued escalation of foundational R&D, youth research funding, and AI recruitment reflects Baidu's long-term dedication to the field, while also offering young innovators a broader platform to explore cutting-edge technology and participate in industrial advancement. Qualified candidates can now visit the official Baidu Scholarship website (https://scholarship.baidu.com) or the Pinecone Fund website (http://campus.baidu.com/keyan.html#/) to submit their applications following the outlined procedures.